National Constitution Center Supreme Court correspondent Lyle Denniston looks at efforts from the Justice Department and civil rights organizations to bring back federal election observers in some states.

On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress in the United States met in Philadelphia to consider its reaction to the British government’s restraints on trade and representative government after the Boston Tea Party.

On this day in 1789, George Washington signed into law that act created the Treasury Department, a move became crucial to America’s survival but also created a constitutional debate about federal powers that remains with us today.

The state Democratic party in Ohio and some of its county organizations and voters have asked the Supreme Court to reinstate five days of early voting in this year’s general election — the so-called “Golden Week” that had been heavily used by black and low-income voters who tend to support Democratic candidates.

It was on this day in 1807 that former Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason charges. The trial was truly a “Trial of the Century” in its time and one of the first big tests of the Constitution’s Treason clause.

With the Supreme Court’s four more liberal Justices staying together in favor of freer access to voting for black citizens, the Court on Wednesday afternoon left intact a federal appeals court ruling that nullified five new restrictions in North Carolina. The issue, in essence, split the Court 4-to-4.